Marital status and births after losing a baby from sudden infant death

Abstract

To describe the change in marital status and subsequent live births of mothers who have lost a baby from sudden infant death (SID or cot death), a postal questionnaire was sent to European mothers who had been interviewed approximately 3.7 years (range 2.2-5.2 years) previously as part of a nationwide case-control study. Mothers of 105 (60.3%) cases and 828 (76.9%) controls replied. Changes in marital status between the time of interview and the time of the postal questionnaire did not differ between mothers of cases and that of controls when adjusted for marital status at the time of death/nominated date for controls. Cases were more likely to have further children than controls (P < 0.001) and had them sooner after the death than after the nominated date for control babies (P < 0.001). Case mothers were more likely than controls to have a second child after the death/nominated date, however the interval between the first and second child after the death/nominated date was the same as that for controls.

Conclusions: Although the death of an infant is a major stress on marital relationships, at approximately 3.7 years marital breakdown is no higher than in the control population. After the death of her baby the mother "replaces" the child by having more children than control mothers and having the first one earlier than control mothers. Mothers who lose a baby from SID are more fertile than the control population both before and after the death.